Dying Glacier

1945

You all know the sad fact of dying glaciers. In the Alps the mass of ice diminishes since 1860. Some you you have seen pictures of that time with the Rhone glacier that almost reached down to the hotel at Gletsch.

I visited the Trift glacier in 1945 and took 2 black and white picture at an age of 13. The next photo I found was from 1960, then 2003 and 2005 when I first realized that this is a dying glacier, which made me almost cry. This trift glacier is part of the Bernese Oberland and is found in a side valley of the Susten road.

Some of the photos are taken from my description of the Steinhaushorn

1960

In 1960 we crossed the lower part of the Trift glacer like I did in 1945.

2003

During a ski trip to the Giglistock in spring 2003 I looked down on the Trift glacier and saw a lake at its end. So I decided to have a further look and made the following photos.

In the year 1900 only a short ladder was needed to go down to the Trift glacier.

2005

Trift glacier became in the meantime a national topic. Some experts feared an ice fall into the lake that would result in a tsunami which might flood the valley below. Instruments control the glacier's movement and an alarm system was created. There are also plans to drain the lake.


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Images

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